Last Game Ever at the Orange Bowl

When the Miami Hurricanes finish play in 2007, the much-fabled Orange Bowl Stadium will be without a tenant for the first time since its opening in 1937. With the future of the stadium in doubt, prevailing theories suggest it will be demolished in favor of a baseball-only facility for Major League Baseball’s Florida Marlins franchise, one thing is for certain: football at the Orange Bowl hasn’t gone the way of the dodo just yet. On January 4th, 2008 the second-annual Offense-Defense All-American Bowl, pitting the best high school football players in the country against each other in an All-Star event for the ages, will take the field in what may just be the final football game ever played at Orange Bowl Stadium.

"The Offense-Defense All American Bowl is the culmination of years of hard work developing a winning curriculum and reputation for excellence, as well as experience in working with young players," said bowl director Matt Whittier. "Unlike other games that can be seen as marketing tools, we are working to make this game a pure, annual tradition that athletes from all across the country can strive to be a part of." Whittier said that “…the reputation of Offense-Defense Sports translated to immediate support of the game from throughout the sports and media fields, making it an easy choice for a global entity like Fox to sign on and participate in this fantastic event.”

The Offense-Defense All-American Bowl is an annual high-school all-star game featuring the very best football talent the country has to offer. Last year’s inaugural event was a hard-hitting affair that saw Team East handle Team West 28-14 in a game nationally televised on ESPN. Current Florida Gator star-in-waiting Cameron Newton won MVP-honors by completed 8 of 12 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown. The game was nominated as the top amateur athletic event of the year.

In 1937, Orange Bowl Stadium (then named Burdine Stadium) finished construction and opened its doors to serve primarily as the home stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes. In the 70 years since that time, the legendary building has played host to five Super Bowls, three decades worth of North-South games, and the NFL Pro Bowl in 1975. In addition, a wide variety of top-tier musical acts plied their trade at the famous stadium and a multitude of high-profile international soccer matches such as the Marlboro Soccer Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup matches, as well as a handful of 1996 Summer Olympic contests took place in the venerable arena. Most famously of course, the stadium had served has the home of college football’s Orange Bowl for nearly 60 years and the storied University of Miami Hurricanes for seven decades. When the stars of the All-American Bowl depart after the game January 4th, Offense-Defense will turn the lights off in the Orange Bowl for the final time.